Correlation of the glass formation and phase selection of the Mg-Cu-Gd bulk metallic glass forming alloys.

The glass formation and microstructure evolution of Mg61Cu28Gd11 and alloys laying on the line linking this composition to pure magnesium, i.e. alloys with fixed Cu:Gd ratio but increasing Mg content were systematically studied. A schematic phase diagram with three ternary phase regions was built based on the related competitive crystalline phases. Moreover, the results indicate that the alloys located in the Mg 2 Cu-Mg 2 CuGd-Mg 6 CuGd ternary phase region have higher glass forming ability than alloys with increased magnesium content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]